Crazy Rhythm: A Gunnar Nilson Mystery

Gunnar Nilson, from an assisted living home in Everett, Wash., in 2003, relates another tale of his days as a PI in Seattle to his caregiver, Kirsti Liddell, in Emory’s solid sequel to 2015’s Trouble in Rooster Paradise. One July day in 1950, Nilson agrees to go to a meeting that night as backup for shady operator Rune Granholm, who wishes to collect the $300 he won from a stranger playing pool but who didn’t have the cash and instead gave him a gold Cartier watch as collateral. When Nilson stops by Granholm’s place that evening, Granholm is lying dead on the floor, shot in the chest. The gold watch is missing, though Nilson doesn’t believe the guy would have been murdered over a watch. Since Granholm’s late older brother was a WWII buddy of his, Nilson decides to investigate. Meanwhile, a slick lawyer hires Nilson to keep an eye on his fiancée. This new case only temporarily distracts Nilson, an old-school gumshoe, from trying to figure out what scheme Granholm was up to that got him killed. Fans of throwback PI novels will find plenty to like. (Jan.)